'Simple', unique robot improves officer safety

Minn.-based ReconRobotics is revolutionizing real-time surveillance

By Mike Wilkinson EdinaPatch.com

Throw together an entrepreneurial Englishman-turned-Yank who knows a good idea when he sees one, a group of very intelligent University of Minnesota techno-dweeb students and a market that’s screaming for new gadgets to fight crime and terrorism, and you have the Throwbot.

The Recon Scout Throwbot is the flagship gadget of ReconRobotics, which has been headquartered in Edina since its founding in 2006. The company has emerged as one of the world’s leading designers, manufacturers and marketers of surveillance technology.

The Throwbot is unlike anything being used today. About the size and configuration of a five-pound dumbbell—but weighing only 1.2 poiunds—it is manually “thrown” into an area where law enforcement or military personnel suspect bad guys and/or things may be located.